Sunday, April 20, 2008

Recommended Reading

David Barstow discusses one way via which the Bush Administration "sold" the Iraq War...the use of allegedly impartial "military analysts." Turns out a lot of them just regurgitated White House-issued talking points and a lot of them were fronting for defense contractors looking for that next big contract. Anyone surprised by this? Didn't think so.

The article, by the way, appears in The New York Times. I'm still waiting for the article about how a lot of the same bogus talking points were spread and afforded credibility by The New York Times.

• Posted at 11:17 PM · LINK

A Brief Matter...

This is probably not necessary but I just might need to clarify something. All weekend at the New York Comic Con, and in a number of other recent venues, I've been asked by impatient folks when some favorite Jack Kirby comic will be reprinted in a new, worthy-of-the-name-Kirby volume. Here is roughly how I answer this question every time...

While there are no official announcements I can make, I am predicting that every major Kirby work that hasn't been recently reprinted will be reprinted in the next few years. The demand is there and it's merely a matter of not flooding the market with too much at too rapid a pace. The folks at DC want to reprint all that Jack did for them, the folks at Marvel feel the same way, and there are offers aplenty for the material that is neither DC nor Marvel. They can't shovel it all out onto the marketplace as swiftly as you might like but right now, it's just a matter of what order they'll do the books in and how they'll space them out. Personally, I'd rather they took their time because if they did saturate the racks, the material might stop selling and then they would stop issuing Kirby reprints. But I don't think that's going to happen. I think it will all (or nearly all) get reissued.

That's approximately how I always say it. It is then usually quoted as Evanier revealing that DC (or Marvel) has committed to reprint everything Jack ever did for them. No, no. no. First off, I am but a freelancer. Those companies will announce what they announce when they announce it. Secondly, there's a difference between a prediction, even an informed prediction, and an actual press release. Please understand that difference. They'll put out Kirby stuff as long as it sells. I just happen to think it'll continue to sell well enough long enough for everything to come out.

• Posted at 9:33 PM · LINK

Good Old Reliable Nathan

In all the interviews, playwright David Mamet insists that the President depicted in his new play, November, is not (repeat: NOT) George W. Bush. Nathan Lane, who stars as President Charles H.P. Smith, says the same thing and they're probably right. Smith is running for re-election, certain to lose and immersed in various machinations to extort cash from the Turkey Farmers Association in exchange for the ritual pardoning of a couple of Thanksgiving gobblers. Can't recall Bush getting mixed up in anything like that...or the determination of his head speechwriter, an avowed lesbian, to have her employer marry her and her lady friend on live TV. President Smith has to contend with that, too.

However, most of the laughs in Act One, Scene One are at Bush's expense. Smith is wildly unpopular for his admitted ineptness including — but not limited to — invading Iraq and clumsily threatening war with Iran. And the audience howls because they hate George W. Bush or at least feel that the outrageousness of the play isn't so far from the truth. They also laugh because Nathan Lane is very, very funny.

Carolyn and I spent Saturday evening laughing a lot...but I'm not sure how much of it was at what Mamet wrote and how much of it was what Lane did with it. It was clearly both but I'm not sure I'd recommend the play if and when you have the opportunity to see it with anyone else. (Laurie Metcalf is also quite wonderful portraying the lesbian speechwriter.) If you can go see it with Nathan, go. And do yourself the favor of knowing as little about the storyline in advance as possible. I'll do you the favor of disclosing no more than this.

• Posted at 8:59 PM · LINK

Good News

We are pleased to report that all charges have been dismissed in the Gordon Lee case. You can get the full background on this one by prowling about the site of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund but basically it goes like this: Gordon is a small time comic book retailer who was charged with multiple felonies after a comic book with some innocuous, non-sexual nudity was given to a minor. The prosecutors misbehaved egregiously in pressing a case which should not have been brought in the first place, and this one should have been tossed outta court on Day One. We're glad it's over but still outraged that so much time and money was wasted on the whole matter.

• Posted at 8:37 PM · LINK

New York Report

American Airlines got their act together in time for my flight here Thursday. The plane took off on time and landed darn close to the scheduled hour. What's more, they actually managed to have my luggage on board...so no problems there. The New York Comic Con, which concluded today, was packed with interesting people, and an amazing percentage of them seemed to be readers of this here blog. Everyone I encountered was asking me about Lydia the Cat and, as an afterthought, about my new book.

Enjoyed seeing many people including but not limited to: Murphy Anderson, Buzz Dixon, Paul Levitz, Stan Lee, Irwin Hasen, Joe Simon, Joe Sinnott, Dick Ayers, Charlie Kochman, John Romita Senior, John Morrow, Stan Goldberg, Jerry Ordway, Colleen Doran, Kyle Baker, Joe Staton, Al Jaffee, Alan Kupperberg, Paul Kupperberg, Marty Pasko, Gary Groth, Kim Thompson, Nick Cardy, Jerry Robinson, Mary Skrenes, Mike Richardson, Michael Davis, Randolph Hoppe, Richard Bensam, Jesse Reyes, Alex Simmons, Marc Chiarello, Jack Morelli, Alan Weiss, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Bob Greenberger, Len Wein, Mike Gold, Martha Thomases, Tony Tower, Michael Uslan, Sal Amendola, Jim Amash, Ramona Fradon, J.J. Sedelmeier and I'm probably forgetting at least thirty other names. Oh, yeah — and I finally met Fred Hembeck in person after more than 25 years of by-mail (and more recently, by-Internet) correspondence. And as Carolyn and I left, there was Jim Burns, who has been a frequent contributor of information here.

Friday, I did two panels — one about the work of the late/great Will Eisner; the other, about the state of the animation business. Saturday morn, we had a nice public memorial panel about our pal, the late/also great Steve Gerber. Many of Steve's fans and friends were there, along with members of his family. And Steve himself was present as you can see from this photo...

I guess you can't read the label so I'll tell you what the top line of it says: "This Package Contains the Cremated Remains of Stephen R. GERBER." That's right. We had his ashes there. Morbid, I know...but Steve wouldn't have wanted to miss a whole panel about himself. It was announced that immediately following the panel, we'd be taking the ashes down and flinging them in the faces of certain editors.

Then today, we had a nice Jack Kirby Tribute Panel with Dick Ayers and Joe Sinnott. Great to see those two guys still working...and mobbed by admirers of all ages.

Good crowds. Good people. I wish I had some good stories or news but it's mostly been seeing friends and people telling me they followed the story of The Kitten here. I'll write more about it when I can think of something to write.

• Posted at 5:09 PM · LINK